This is my new fic that I had to write down, even
if I have like three other's that need updating. No worries, I will
update all of them and I haven't forgotten or stopped.

This
story tells what happens when a supposedly dead Nadia Santos returns
after three years of captivity to find that her husband Eric Weiss
has married someone else.

I
don't own any of the characters, JJ does.

When A
Heart Breaks

CHAPTER 1

"For as long as there is
breath left in my body, my son will not be named after a fruit, a
basketball player or a porn star," a very pregnant Rachel
Gibson-Weiss mockingly complained to her husband of seven months,
Eric Weiss. The two were having dinner at Sydney and Vaughn's house
and now the topic had turned to naming the Weiss's unborn baby
boy.

"Ron is my uncle's name and honestly I have never
even seen a Ron Jeremy film in my life," Eric responded and took
another sip of his beer. Now that Rachel was pregnant and not
drinking any alcohol, he had a permanent designated driver as he had
humorously noted on many occasions.

"Your uncle's name is
Raymond and you owned a large Ron Jeremy video collection when we
were in college. It's not nice to lie to the woman who is carrying
your child," Michael said while eyeing his best friend with a
laugh.

Sydney had been quiet for some time now, she had just
watched the threesome interact with each other. These nights where
harder for her than she would have ever thought. Every time Eric was
present, she couldn't help but to think about her sister Nadia who
had died almost three years ago on her and Eric's honeymoon in
Tahiti.

She liked Rachel and was thankful of her to helping
Eric through his grief and making him smile again. Still she couldn't
help herself in picturing what this scene would look like if her baby
sister had been allowed to live and spend the rest of her life with
the man she loved.

She looked at Michael who was telling
Rachel a funny story from Eric's college days to the embarrassment
of his friend who protested and tried blocking his wife's ears with
his hands. After losing her sister, Sydney had made a promise to live
every moment of her life to the fullest and only then, she truly got
what having Michael meant to her.

She treasured all those
memories she had of her baby sister, she missed her laughter, her
smile and her winning personality. Nadia had been taken away from her
way too soon and in her sorrow, Sydney had watched Eric and Nadia's
wedding video many times now just to see her sister at her most
happiest.

Her musing ended when she could hear her daughter
Isabelle's cry through the baby monitor. As she was getting up,
Eric intervened and asked if he could possibly sooth his goddaughter
to get some practice before his own child was born. Sydney agreed in
a heartbeat and watched the raven-haired man go to the other room to
tend for her and Michael's five-month old daughter.

Michael
and Rachel were deep in conversation and Sydney didn't want to
interrupt. She excused herself and followed to the nursery. She
watched in fascination when Eric was changing her daughter's diaper
and making funny faces in an effort to stop Isabelle's crying.
Sydney was positive that he'd be a great dad to his son when he was
born in a few months time, she was just sad that Nadia didn't have
a change to have children, like she had desperately wanted.

"Sydney,
your phone is ringing," Rachel said as she interrupted Sydney's
thoughts and handed the other woman a cell phone. As Sydney answered,
Rachel waddled back to the dining room where Michael was clearing the
table.

"Something major came up, I need you to come right
now to the office. Take Michael with you and see if you can reach
Weiss, this is incredibly urgent," came the voice of her father
Jack Bristow on the other end of the line before she could even say
hello.

"Eric is here with me, we are having dinner. We'll
be there in a moment," Sydney said changing back to agent mode and
gestured to Eric to put Isabelle back to her crib. Something in her
dad's voice scared her, it was the same one he had used when Nadia
had died.

"You need to get going? Something big is going
down? Don't worry about a babysitter, I'll stay and watch
Isabelle. I'm on maternity leave and Eric won't let me anywhere
near the CIA in fear that I might want to get back to work." Rachel
noted with understanding and Sydney nodded to her direction in
gratitude.

In an anticipating silence, the three agents
exited the house and made their way to the car. Michael sat in the
driver's seat while Eric had called shotgun and was sitting in the
passenger's seat. Sydney took a familiar seat in the backseat of
the car, she never managed to get the shotgun position, and Weiss
always called it before she could even think about the seating
arrangement.--

Jack Bristow was on pins and needles
standing outside of a hospital room watching what was happening
inside. There sat a very much alive Nadia Santos who was being
examined by the doctors. He hadn't fully wrapped his head around
that the dark-haired woman was indeed present in the room and his
eyes were not deceiving him. When he had gotten the call, he had been
sure that someone was playing a cruel trick on him. He had after all
comforted both his daughter and wife during her funeral three years
ago and accompanied Irina to visit her gravesite on birthdays,
holidays and other special occasions.

Irina was sitting next
to her daughter's bedside, not taking her eyes off of Nadia. She
looked happy, confused, elated and tired while half-listening the
doctor's words, the man in the white coat couldn't say anything
that would have been more important than getting to see her daughter
alive again.

After Nadia's 'death', Irina had felt
closest to Jack than she had in years and they had found common
ground. All those supposedly buried feelings had surfaced and today
they were more in love and in sync with each other than ever. Even in
her years as Laura Bristow, Irina hadn't felt this connected to the
man who had fathered her oldest daughter.

Irina hadn't heard
of Nadia's father Arvin Sloane for years now, he had attended the
funeral and then vanished. She suspected that the man had something
to do with Nadia's supposed death and captivity. If anyone could
pull it off, it would be Sloane, who changed allegiances more often
than Julian Sark did and his only real loyalty lay with Rambaldi. If
indeed Sloane was behind this, she would kill him with her bare hands
even after her jump to the good side. No one who put her family
through that kind of agony deserved to live in Irina's
opinion.

Jack heard a familiar pair of footsteps approaching
and without taking his eyes off of Nadia and Irina, he could tell
that those belonged to his daughter. Jack had arranged that only
Sydney was allowed to enter the part of the building where Nadia was
currently being held. She needed to be told first and after that
Michael and Weiss could enter. Although Eric was technically Nadia's
husband, he was in a tough position in Jack's mind and his arrival
would hurt the raven-haired woman more than help. Eric had after all
moved on with his life and not so long ago, 'married' someone
else who was carrying his child. He couldn't provide Nadia the
unwavering support she needed right now. He had other priorities,
like a very pregnant 'wife' at home.

Sydney noticed her
father standing looking at something with deep concentration and her
curiosity was overwhelming. She neared her father and the sight that
welcomed her felt out of this world. Her dead sister laying in a
hospital bed holding hands with her mother and being examined.

She
reached her father and collapsed in his arms. This couldn't be
true, Nadia was dead, and she couldn't be in this building. Jack
catched his daughter and held her close. He supported her and kissed
her brunette locks that had been pulled to a sloppy ponytail.

Sydney opened and closed her eyes a couple of times and
breathed in and out to stop herself from passing out. This is what
Michael must of felt when she had turned up alive in Hong Kong seven
years ago. If this really was Nadia, she was never going to let her
out of her sight ever again.

"I know you must be suspicious
and confused as we buried your sister three years ago but I did the
testing myself and this is really Nadia Santos. She knew things only
the real Nadia could have known so I'm completely convinced this is
not a double." Jack said with conviction. In his mind, there was no
doubt about the identity of the woman who was found in rural
Argentina.

Sydney nodded in understanding and left her
father's arms to enter the room where someone she had grieved and
reminiscenced sat almost peacefully. She opened the door with shaky
hands and immediately as she entered, she rushed to Nadia's side
and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug.

"I missed you more
than you will never know. You must have millions of questions and I
have some of my own," Sydney said with tears in her eyes as she
finally after several minutes entangled herself from Nadia.

"Where's Eric? Why isn't he here? I want to see my
husband, nobody has told me where he is and if he's okay. Please
Sydney, go find out why I'm not allowed to see him," Nadia said
with a begging voice. Hugging Sydney this tightly felt better than
she had fantasized during her captivity, but she needed to know where
the man she loved was. He was the one she had been the most worried
about, Nadia knew both Irina and Sydney were life's ultimate
survivors and could handle anything that was thrown in their path,
but Eric had not been carved from the same mold as her sister and
mother.

Sydney paused, not knowing what to respond. She didn't
know how to tell her sister that even thought Eric was just
downstairs, he had moved on and another woman now called herself Mrs.
Weiss.

"He's fine, he and Michael are here as well. I'm
sure you can see him soon." Sydney comforted and hated herself for
lying to Nadia who was now looking at her with tears falling from her
dark eyes. She cowered out and didn't tell Nadia the real reason
why her husband hadn't been the first one there.

"You
know, thinking about Eric kept me sane all this time and I fell
asleep thinking that I needed to get back to my husband because he
needed me as much as I needed him. No one has ever needed my the way
he needed me. I would look at my ring and remember the time he asked
me to marry him.

Flashback

Four and a half
years ago; Los Angeles, California

After a tiring day at work,
Nadia Santos was quite happy to be going home, to a place she shared
with her boyfriend of 10 months Eric Weiss. He had left work earlier
today and would no doubted be home. She opened the front door and to
her surprise, she was welcomed in by the tunes of 'When A Man Loves
A Woman' and pink rose petals had been scattered everywhere. Eric
appeared from the dining room carrying white orchids, which he handed
to her with a kiss.

Nadia was surprised and didn't know what
to think or say. She kissed him back hungrily and felt her heart
start beating multiple times faster when he suddenly kneeled in front
of her.

"I know we haven't dated all that long, but you
have made me the happiest man alive and I can't live without you.
Nadia Santos, the woman of my dreams and the woman that I love, will
you be my wife?" Eric said and took something sparkling out of his
pocket. It was platinum ring with a heart shaped diamond in the
middle of it.

"Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you. I love
you," Nadia responded with tears of joy in her eyes and captured
Eric's face to kiss him deeply. Eric stood and lifted his new
fiancée to his arms and carried her to their bedroom that he
had decorated with candles and flowers to celebrate. He had been
almost a 100 percent sure that she would say yes, so everything had
been ready for a nigh of passion.

Sydney
exchanged looks with her father through the glass and he gave a nod,
meaning Eric was on his way here. She feared that Nadia was too
fragile to find out about her husband new life and new baby, but this
was something she couldn't keep from her sister. She brazed herself
and took a hold of Nadia's hand and squeezing it lovingly and
reassuringly. Together, they would be strong and Sydney was going to
help her through this.

To be continued...

Next
chapter: a Eric/Nadia reunion and Rachel finds out.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.